For traditional advertisement and promotion, the main control an advertiser has is the selection of the media where the advertisement/promotion appears. For example, if the advertiser of a tennis racket thinks potential buyers may also be interested in reading the Sports Illustrated magazine, then the advertiser can place an advertisement in that magazine. That is to say the advertisers mainly use the profile of the potential buyers to identify the media that can attract an audience with the similar profile to place an advertisement.
While using the profile of the potential buyer to identify the media of the advertisement is a well known method of targeting prospective buyers, this method may be very inefficient. For example, the profile being used may be fairly imprecise. If it is desired to target a group having certain characteristics, the profile of the group that may be exposed to the advertising medium may only overlap, to a limited extent, the profile of the group to which is desired that the advertisement be directed. Furthermore, once such a targeted group has been identified, it is difficult to track the customers in the group and to identify customers who may be eligible for inclusion in that group.
Furthermore, as inventory or wholesale pricing changes, it may be very difficult to modify the form of the advertising and the target group for the advertising in accordance with the other changes. For example, if inventory on one product is scarce, it may not be desirable to actively advertise for that product. Furthermore, while inventory for another product may increase, advertisement for that product in order to increase sales may be desirable. With traditional advertising techniques, the ability to dynamically modify the type of advertising may be fairly limited.